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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Alice Irrazari.

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<v Speaker 2>And I am Patrick Woodwood. Spotlight uses a special English

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<v Speaker 2>method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand

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<v Speaker 2>no matter where in the world they live.

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<v Speaker 3>A young boy walks along a country road in England.

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<v Speaker 3>He is pulling a huge bird along the road. The

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<v Speaker 3>leg of the bird is broken, but the bird is

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<v Speaker 3>still alive. The young boy walks a long way. He

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<v Speaker 3>arrives home. His father is at home with some other men.

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<v Speaker 3>They have been working in the fields all day. They

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<v Speaker 3>take the bird from the boy. It will feed many people.

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<v Speaker 3>It is huge. One of the men kills the bird

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<v Speaker 3>by breaking its neck. But this bird is the last

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<v Speaker 3>of its kind. The Great Bustard is dead.

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<v Speaker 1>Henry Blackmore wrote this story in eighteen fifty six. It

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<v Speaker 1>speaks of the death of one of the last great

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<v Speaker 1>British bustards in England. The Great bustard has a scientific

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<v Speaker 1>name Otis Tarda. It is not surprising that this bird disappeared.

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<v Speaker 1>English people hunted this bird for its wonderful meat. They

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<v Speaker 1>killed large numbers of them. But bird experts ornithologists are

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<v Speaker 1>now helping to bring the great bustard back to England.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's spotlight is on their efforts.

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<v Speaker 2>The group of ornithologists we are talking about is the

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<v Speaker 2>Great Bustard group. They have established a new home for

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<v Speaker 2>the birds. It is on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England.

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<v Speaker 2>They chose this area of England because it is a

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<v Speaker 2>good environment for the birds with a good supply of food.

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<v Speaker 1>The British Army uses a large area of Salisbury Plain

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<v Speaker 1>for training. Citizens are not permitted to use this area.

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<v Speaker 1>This is good news for the birds. It means protection.

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<v Speaker 1>Only soldiers training with the army can use the area.

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<v Speaker 1>These soldiers try to stay away from the birds. This

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<v Speaker 1>lack of people means less danger for wildlife. Other rare

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<v Speaker 1>birds have survived well in this environment.

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<v Speaker 2>So what makes this bird so special? Well, the Great

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<v Speaker 2>Bustard is the world's heaviest flying bird. Male birds can

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<v Speaker 2>weigh up to twenty kilograms. They can measure over a

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<v Speaker 2>meter long. The birds make a noise similar to that

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<v Speaker 2>of a dog. They can also live for twenty five years.

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<v Speaker 2>This makes them one of nature's longest lived birds. The

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<v Speaker 2>Great Bustard is also very rare. Pologists estimate that fewer

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<v Speaker 2>than fifty thousand grape bustards exist in the world today.

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<v Speaker 1>The new English Group or Colony will help to protect

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<v Speaker 1>the birds for the future. The colony is the result

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<v Speaker 1>of an international effort involving experts in Britain and Spain,

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<v Speaker 1>so British and Spanish ornithologists are working together. Originally the

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<v Speaker 1>project involved ornithologists from Russia as well. The first birds

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<v Speaker 1>in the English Colony came from Saratov in southern Russia,

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<v Speaker 1>but these birds often left or migrated back to Saratov.

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<v Speaker 1>Birds from Spain left less often. The first birds came

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<v Speaker 1>to England in two thousand and four. More young birds

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<v Speaker 1>have been brought to England every summer since then.

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<v Speaker 2>Life is also difficult for the grape bustard in Spain.

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<v Speaker 2>Farming and expanding human populations are pushing the grape bustard

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<v Speaker 2>out of its naturally environment. Ornithologists estimate that about thirty

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<v Speaker 2>thousand grape bustards survive in Spain. The Russian ornithologists work

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<v Speaker 2>with the farmers in central Spain. Eggs can easily be

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<v Speaker 2>destroyed by farming equipment, so any farmer who finds eggs

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<v Speaker 2>in his fields informs the ornithologists. The ornithologists then rescue

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<v Speaker 2>the eggs.

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<v Speaker 1>So what happens to the birds after they arrive in England. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>first of all, they need to be quarantined, that is,

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<v Speaker 1>kept away from other creatures. This makes sure that they

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<v Speaker 1>do not carry any diseases into the country. After this,

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<v Speaker 1>the job of teaching the young birds begins.

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<v Speaker 2>The experts use a process called isolation rearing. This means

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<v Speaker 2>that the young birds do not have any links with humans.

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<v Speaker 2>Young birds often form an attachment to anyone who feeds

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<v Speaker 2>and looks after them. This is called imprinting. In the wild,

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<v Speaker 2>imprinting is very important. It means that a young bird

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<v Speaker 2>will always follow its parents. But for the birds in England,

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<v Speaker 2>imprinting would mean becoming attached to humans. This would prevent

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<v Speaker 2>them from learning to avoid humans later it would prevent

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<v Speaker 2>them from becoming truly wild.

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<v Speaker 1>When the birds are about four months old, the project

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<v Speaker 1>leaders released the birds into the wild. The area for

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<v Speaker 1>the birds is over seven hundred eighty square kilometers. The

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<v Speaker 1>grape bustards are slowly making the area their home, but

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<v Speaker 1>this is taking a long time. This is because the

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<v Speaker 1>birds have not been able to produce their own young.

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<v Speaker 1>A male grape bustard is only able to reproduce when

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<v Speaker 1>it reaches five years old.

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<v Speaker 2>Five years after the first grape bustards came to England,

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<v Speaker 2>the birds were finally ready to reproduce. In early June

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<v Speaker 2>two thousand and nine, the ornithologists announced success. Two baby

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<v Speaker 2>grape bustards had hatched from their eggs. This was the

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<v Speaker 2>first time that any Great bustard had hatched in England

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<v Speaker 2>since eighteen thirty two. David Waters is the director of

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<v Speaker 2>the Great Bustard Group. He said, this.

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<v Speaker 4>Is a great step forward for our project. It is

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<v Speaker 4>also great news for wildlife in the UK, for the

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<v Speaker 4>great bustards and for me. It has been a hard

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<v Speaker 4>struggle to get this far, but to see Great bustards

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<v Speaker 4>born here for the first time in one hundred and

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<v Speaker 4>seventy seven years is wonderful.

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<v Speaker 1>By twenty twenty two, British ornithologists counted twenty nests in

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<v Speaker 1>the wild. They estimate that one third of the great

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<v Speaker 1>bustards were born and reared by wild parents in Wiltshire.

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<v Speaker 1>Ornithologists consider the population to be self sufficient and growing.

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<v Speaker 1>Program will continue. The hope is that the number of

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<v Speaker 1>Great bustards will grow so that this species will remain

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<v Speaker 1>on earth.

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<v Speaker 2>Wildlife experts estimate that the world loses about seventy thousand

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<v Speaker 2>different plants and animals every year. These creatures become extinct.

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<v Speaker 2>They no longer exist anywhere in the world. This is

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<v Speaker 2>a serious matter because nature depends on balance. When one

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<v Speaker 2>animal disappears, it has an effect on the whole environment.

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<v Speaker 1>Many experts believe that individual countries cannot solve this problem.

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<v Speaker 1>They believe that the international community needs to act together.

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<v Speaker 1>The Great Busted Project is an example of this sort

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<v Speaker 1>of action, but this alone will not save the birds.

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<v Speaker 1>Including the Colony and the United Kingdom, the Great Bustard's

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<v Speaker 1>population is still declining. According to experts at Cambridge University,

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<v Speaker 1>there are only about thirty thousand of these special birds

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<v Speaker 1>left in the world. War needs to be done, but

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<v Speaker 1>projects like the Great Bustard Project do offer hope. People

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<v Speaker 1>who enjoy wildlife hope that more such projects will develop

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<v Speaker 1>in the future. They hope that the world will become

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<v Speaker 1>a safe environment for all creatures, great and small.

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<v Speaker 2>Have you seen a Great Bustard in the wild or

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<v Speaker 2>in a zoo? How do you respond to vanishing wildlife?

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<v Speaker 2>What gives you hope that some species will be able

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<v Speaker 2>to recover? What success stories for birds or animals have

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<v Speaker 2>happened in your country. What creatures no longer live in

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<v Speaker 2>your country because of their extinction. You can leave a

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<v Speaker 2>comment on our website at www dot Spotlight English dot com.

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<v Speaker 2>You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Blue Sky,

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<v Speaker 2>and x. You can also get our programs delivered directly

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<v Speaker 2>to your Android or Apple device through our free official

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<v Speaker 2>Spotlight English app.

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<v Speaker 1>The writer of this program was from the Spotlight team.

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<v Speaker 1>The producer was Michyo Osaki. The voices you heard were

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<v Speaker 1>from the United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes

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<v Speaker 1>were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. You

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<v Speaker 1>can listen to this program again and read it on

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<v Speaker 1>the internet at www dot Spotlight English dot com. This

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<v Speaker 1>program is called The Great Bustard Returns.

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<v Speaker 2>We hope you can join us again for the next

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<v Speaker 2>Spotlight program. Goodbye.